Tag Archives: Crimson Comedian

The latest Uncanny X-Men story arc, “Final Execution,” kicks off with the team in a state of upheaval.

Psylocke, having processed the toll being on a mutant kill squad is taking on her psyche, is leaving the team after “satisfying her curiosity” with a one-night stand with Fantomex. Fantomex, on the other hand, is leaving because no more Warren [See last year’s epic “Dark Angel Saga”] means no more money–and he’s probably sulking over being spurned by Psylocke.

Meanwhile, there’s a mysterious figure at the Jean Grey School targeting Genesis, the reformed clone of Apocalypse, and Deadpool has gone down while on a mission–which is a big deal following Deadpool #54, where Wade [YOU SHOULD READ Deadpool #54 AND FIND OUT INSTEAD OF LETTING ME SPOIL IT].

Anyways, this all culminates in a sort-of return of a long-dead X-villain.

Overall, this is a great start to Rick Remender’s latest major X-Force story arc. With a title like “Final Execution,” there are a lot of inferences that can be made. The way things have developed with all the characters on the team, as well as the people around them, will surely only help to further speculation about what that title refers to.

Regardless, Rick Remender has crafted an excellent first part to this storyline with an art team that rivals the work on any other issues of the book, and the two back-up stories are a nice look at Remender’s earlier work with artist Jerome Opeña on stories starring Wolverine and Deadpool, respectively.

Deadpool finally gets what he wanted, but does he still want it and is it too late to go back?

After setting off a massive goose chase for a serum that could allegedly negate mutant powers, Deadpool is finally “cured” of his healing factor–but not before some of the most dangerous people in the world find out that he was always aware that the serum only works on him. The serum, as it turns out, is made from DNA samples taken from a lock of Wade’s childhood hair. It even has some unexpected side-effects that are likely to have a huge impact on the character going forward–but I won’t spoil that here.

By altering the character in several ways, Daniel Way has shown his willingness to take a risk and step outside of the traditional Deadpool formula. Deadpool’s new status quo makes a ton of new stories possible, which will hopefully (I’ve got my fingers crossed) allow Daniel Way to stay on the book for another 50 issues.

Despite what certain people around here have to say about me never having anything bad to say about Deadpool, I stand by my belief that this book has been one of the most consistently fun, leave-your-brain-at-the-door reads on my pull list since I started picking it up four years ago. For anyone willing to put aside their “everything should be super serious and full of meaning” comic book elitism, now is as good a time as any to jump on.

During last year’s “Dark Angel Saga,” the Age of Apocalypse’s evil version of Iceman escaped into Earth-616 (i.e. the mainstream Marvel Universe). This was the primary reason for that reality’s Nightcrawler joining X-Force.

In Uncanny X-Force #24, he finally gets his revenge on his former friend and teammate.

While Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Deadpool head to Madripoor to take care of AoA Iceman, Fantomex and Psylocke attend the Otherworld funeral of Psylocke’s brother, Jamie Braddock. Here, we see Fantomex’s more human side during a brief conversation with Psylocke’s other brother, Brian (AKA Captain Britain), and learn that in order to save Fantomex during the Otherworld saga, Psylocke gave up her ability to feel sorrow or remorse.

Back in Madripoor, the fight comes down to Nightcrawler and Iceman–no powers or weapons, just two former friends fighting to the death. Rick Remender really drives home the emotional impact of this battle via Nightcrawler’s thoughts and the banter between the two. Additionally, Remender continues to bring some of the best Deadpool antics outside of Daniel Way’s Deadpool solo series and provides a huge leap in the Fantomex-Psylocke relationship, as well as building upon the father-son dynamic between Fantomex and Apocalypse child clone Genesis.

Phil Noto and Dean White’s art in this issue is vibrant and detailed, perhaps even my favorite art on this series thus far. The transitions between panels are extremely fluid and easy to follow, keeping the action moving at a steady pace.

This one-and-done issue is a must-buy for fans of the series and new readers interested in the title alike.

After setting in motion a plan that involved his X-Force teammates, HYDRA Bob, Kingpin, Daken, and Tombstone before quickly spiraling out of control, Deadpool has finally been injected with a serum that can make him killable.

Having been seemingly betrayed by his best friend, HYDRA Bob, Deadpool teleports (with Bob) to an undisclosed location shortly before Tombstone can snipe him. Bob reveals that, having seen the mayhem Deadpool was creating, he could take no more. For some reason, he thought giving Wade mortality would make him step back from the ledge. (Remember, Deadpool wants to die.)

Anyways, the Merc With a Mouth telports out of the conversation with Bob long enough to gloat to X-Force about how he won, and to apologize for Wolverine getting shot with the “mutant-negating” serum, as well. Wolverine, however, is alive and well, and he and the rest of X-Force–now in on the lie–inform Wade that the serum only works on him.

Now with his X-Force teammates out to kill him, as well, Deadpool teleports back to Bob, who brings him around to the realization that he hasn’t considered how his death will impact others. Bob, for one, will most likely be killed by Tombstone, since the deal he made to get the serum centered around Bob setting Deadpool up for the kill.

This scene in particular has anti-suicide undertones in it, and they’re done pretty well. One thing Daniel Way does well when the opportunity arises is inserting subtle morals in these stories, which isn’t something you’d expect when you’re reading a comic about a hideously deformed paranoid schizophrenic mercenary with a Wolverine-like healing factor.

While the web of disaster that Deadpool has tangled himself in here can be hard to summarize in words, it has also been expertly spun by Way. It’s a lot to digest and could have been extraordinarily confusing, but he’s laid it all out in a way that is extremely easy to follow. Paired with what might be my favorite art on this entire series so far, and “Dead” continues to be the highlight of Way’s run with the character.

X-Force’s Otherworld adventure concludes with a bit of a twist in this week’s Uncanny X-Force #23.

As you may recall, Captain Britain (Psylocke’s brother) and the Captain Britain Corps abducted Fantomex and Psylocke, taking them back to the mythical realm of Otherworld. By my calculations, Otherworld is home to all British people in the Marvel Universe–or something.

Anyways, the Captain Britain Corps intended to put Fantomex on trial for killing the child reincarnation of Apocalypse (way back in Uncanny X-Force‘s first story arc). Before the Corps could wipe Fantomex from existence, Psylocke–who is also Lady Britain when she’s in Otherworld–escaped with him. Unbeknownst to either of them, Wolverine, Deadpool, and Nightcrawler (the one from the Age of Apocalypse timeline) had come to Otherworld to rescue them before getting pulled into stopping a siege on the Tower Omniverse.

The Tower Omniverse is a tower in Otherworld with doors to all realities in the Marvel multiverse, and a character known only as the “Goat Monk” wanted to spread his dark magic across all of existence. Oh, and a former barrister and Weapon Plus experiment known as the Skinless Man, or Weapon III, showed up to exact a personal vendetta against Fantomex, who is also Weapon XIII. He ended up skinning Fantomex’s head.

If it sounds like the plot of this story was a little bit cluttered, well, it kind of was. There’s a lot to take in here, and a lot going on at one time. This issue stays pretty much that way. Wolverine and Deadpool attempt to kill the Goat Monk, Psylocke and Fantomex overcome the Skinless Man, and Captain Britain is forced to make a difficult decision following a big reveal on who exactly the Goat Monk is.

Despite having all of this happen in about 20 pages of story (I’m not counting ad pages in that page count), Rick Remender does still manage to throw in some good character moments. We see the attraction between Fantomex and Psylocke teased a little bit more, Psylocke coming to grips with the fact that the right decision is not always the easiest one, and Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler’s rough exterior cracking to reveal some of the deceased mainstream Nightcrawler that longtime readers are familiar with. Additionally, Remender continues to provide some of the best Deadpool banter not written by Daniel Way.

This hasn’t been a perfect storyline by any means, but it has its moments. Maybe I just need to read the whole thing over again in one sitting, or maybe it carried on an issue too long, but it felt as though it jumped around a bit from time to time. I will say that the sort of undefined–perhaps even sometimes hazy–look that the art has works very well to convey the story’s setting, although it is somewhat inconsistently detailed. Some panels look roughly sketched, while others show a great deal more detail.

The Otherworld adventure has been a nice breather following the “Dark Angel Saga,” but it feels like it falls a little short of the rest of the series. With that in mind, I’m really looking forward to the next issue, featuring Age of Apocalypse Iceman, and the upcoming “Final Execution” storyline.

In his ongoing efforts to die permanently by flushing out the holder of a serum that can negate his healing factor, Deadpool staged a fake turf war between the Kingpin and Tombstone. In the process, he’s brought Hydra Bob, his teammates on X-Force, and Wolverine’s estranged son Daken into play, as well.

Unbeknownst to Wade, however, Kingpin and Tombstone were never fooled, and the other pawns in his insane game of chess are catching on to the fact that something is amiss.

In Deadpool #52, we see Wade continuing to keep this game going as he instigates Daken and leads X-Force into a suicide raid on the Kingpin’s headquarters, where Wilson Fisk and Typhoid Mary have kidnapped Hydra Bob and are torturing him for information. The most impressive thing about the “Dead” story arc so far is that Daniel Way has managed to play these characters off of each other in a believable way, all while depicting them as accurately as any other writer has. That takes a bit of skill when dealing with this many characters in a single book.

This issue ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Will Deadpool get his wish? Was a certain other character depowered by the serum, as well? Is there really a commercial parachute capable of handling the Kingpin’s weight? [The answers are “I don’t know,” “That’s even harder to say,” and “Yeah, probably”–in that order. Thank me later, kids!]

If you’re a fan of this series, or even just a casual reader, this isn’t a story to sleep on. Be sure to pick up the previous two issues, too, if you haven’t already.

The pace picks back up in the third part of Rick Remender’s Otherworld odyssey as Psylocke continues her efforts to help Fantomex escape from her brothers in the Captain Britain Corps and Nightcrawler convinces Wolverine that X-Force should help the people of Otherworld fight back against the realm’s demonic invaders.

In case you’ve been out of the loop, Otherworld is a realm that serves as an in-between spot for all of the realities in the Marvel Multiverse. Basically, that means it has all of the doorways to the mainstream Marvel Universe (i.e. Earth-616), the Ultimate Universe, the 2099 Universe, the Age of Apocalypse, the Negative Zone, etc.

Otherworld itself is something out of a Tolkien book, with dragons, castles, and sorcery. It’s also home to the Captain Britain Corps, who see fit to punish individuals from any reality for whatever crimes they feel they should intervene in.

(Clearly, they miss a lot of them because a TON of villains are still alive, but stay with me here.)

X-Force ended up here in issue #20 after the Corps abducted Fantomex and Psylocke in the middle of the night. They put Fantomex on trial for the assassination of the child clone of Apocalypse and sentenced him to being removed from existence. Psylocke, however, rescued Fantomex, as the two have been involved in an increasingly complex game of cat and mouse.

Remender throws in a conversation between the two in this issue to add further confusion to where exactly Fantomex stands in the situation, and also to underscore how well Fantomex can manipulate others. It’s an excellent character trait to draw attention to. After all, this is a guy whose power set includes misdirection–the ability to distract others with a realistic illusion.

Unfortunately, Psylocke and Fantomex’s escape is cut short by the Skinless Man, who we find out is Weapon III and has a long history with Fantomex, a.k.a. Weapon XIII. He’s given a sensible enough reason for being in Otherworld, and it ultimately makes even more sense that Remender continues to explore and add to the story of the Weapon Plus program given that three members of X-Force–Wolverine, Deadpool, and Fantomex–were all involved in it in some way or another.

As all of this plot is unfolding, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Deadpool are taking refuge in a village on the verge of being besieged by the hordes of a demonic goat. Nightcrawler, who is seemingly coming around to his new teammates after leaving behind his own X-Men in the Age of Apocalypse, convinces Wolverine that they should fight to help the people of Otherworld before finding their friends.

This change in attitude for AoA Nightcrawler draws the first big parallel between him and his deceased Earth-616 counterpart since the differences between the two were highlighted two issues ago. It really adds additional layers to a familiar character who isn’t really the character fans are ultimately familiar with, reminding them that while he is different due to the state of his home universe, Kurt Wagner is still Kurt Wagner at the end of the day.

Plus, it leads to a fun exchange about narcissistic personality disorder between Wolverine and Deadpool as they head off to kill the demonic goat monk thing attacking Otherworld.

Overall, another great issue in Remender’s run. If you’re new to X-Force, I’d recommend starting a little further back in the series, but this storyline is fun and just different enough from earlier stories to keep things interesting without veering too far into left field.

And I promise I’ll never make another poor sports analogy as long as I’m writing reviews.

Deadpool’s elaborate game of chess–a game he doesn’t really know how to play–keeps getting weirder and more out of control as his quest for death continues.

You see, Wade found out that there was a serum capable of negating his healing factor and allowing him to die, so he enlisted the help of his X-Force teammates to help him find it. To do so, he convinced them that the Kingpin had it. Meanwhile, he had his friend HYDRA Bob tell the Kingpin about the serum, which of course led to the Kingpin sending his agent Typhoid Mary and the ninjas of the Hand to find it. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Deadpool also told Wolverine’s son, Daken, about the serum, causing Daken to go out looking for it for his own reasons.

Meanwhile, nobody realizes that Tombstone, fresh out of prison, had the serum made so he could get revenge on Deadpool for putting him there in the first place.

Of course, with X-Force gunning for the Kingpin and Kingpin sending his henchmen to find the serum, the two factions are bound to collide, and the issue opens with a fight that includes a beautiful sequence of Wolverine and Typhoid Mary plummeting from the side of an apartment building.

Of course, having a brawl like this in the middle of New York City is undoubtedly going to attract some unwanted attention from other hero types (keep in mind here that X-Force is supposed to remain a secret), so Deadpool covers their tracks the following day by initiating a “make-believe gang war.” What he doesn’t account for is that Kingpin and Tombstone would be in contact with one another, or that Daken would figure out that Tombstone had the formula, which is sure to set up the type of shameful disaster that Wade is all too familiar with being a part of.

Overall, this issue maintains the pace of the last one while adding even more layers to the story. After 51 issues, I’m still amazed that Daniel Way has maintained the level of consistency that he has on this book. Especially notable are the exchange between Deadpool and Wolverine following Deadpool’s provocation of the gang war, and the interplay between Kingpin and Tombstone once they begin to catch on to what’s happening. The fact that you can tell Way enjoys what he does makes reading Deadpool that much more enjoyable. The switch in artists from Carlo Barberi to Ale Garza is somewhat noticeable, but not distracting, as the art still possesses a similar flow and overall style.

If you haven’t checked out the first part of this story in #50, go ahead and pick up both issues. This is shaping up to be one of the best arcs in the series.

Longtime Deadpool fans know that Wade Wilson is in love with the one thing in the world he can’t have: Death. In Deadpool #50, Daniel Way kicks off the biggest story of his 4-year run on the book–an epic that might just grant the Merc With a Mouth his wish.

The “Evil Deadpool” story arc ended with Wade’s evil clone being killed by a dart that negated his mutant healing factor. [That’s, you know, the thing that keeps him from getting killed dead!] They’re on a comic site, dude… They know what a healing factor is.

Upset that he wasn’t in the projectile’s path, Deadpool sets out to find out who took the shot so he can finally feel death’s cool embrace. In order to accomplish this, he sets up a complex game of a chess–a game that he doesn’t even know how to play–involving his X-Force teammates (“The Horse Heads”); Bob, Agent of H.Y.D.R.A. (“The Wheelbarrow”); Daken (“The Shooter”); and The Kingpin and Typhoid Mary (“The Ones That Go Diagonally”).

As the issue plays out, Deadpool attempts to play all of these “pieces” to draw out who it is that can kill him. Of course, there’s one piece in the game that Wade doesn’t account for: “The Wild Card.”

Way manages to squeeze in elements from all corners of the Marvel Universe in this extra-sized first part to what may be his magnum opus on the series, and Deadpool’s coup de grâce, while Carlo Barberi’s pencils remain consistent with his earlier work on the book. Among the better moments of the issue are Psylocke attempting to read through the clutter of voices that is Wade’s mind and a panel where Fantomex explains how the chain of command in an assassination conspiracy tends to work.

Sure, it would be easy for Daniel Way to write a simple recap for the latest Marvel “Point One” issue for Deadpool, but simple and easy wouldn’t be as fun as writing that recap issue AS A FREAKIN’ MUSICAL!

[For those not in the know, “Point One” is Marvel’s initiative to give new readers a good “jumping-on” point to a comic. – Voice #2]

In Deadpool #49.1, Way takes a stroll through his 50-issue run on the current volume of the Merc With A Mouth’s solo book. From his involvement in the Skrull Invasion and his war against Norman Osborn and epic battle with Bullseye to his attempts to be a hero and interstellar adventures, all are covered here and intended to be recapped to the tune of Naughty By Nature, Tay Zonday, Britney Spears and the Misfits.

Doing the story overview this way was a fitting way to condense 50 or so issues of Deadpool into a 32-page book. To top it all off, John McCrea’s art diverges from regular artist Salva Espin in that it has a more ’90s Deadpool feel to it. This adds even more of a “flashback” sort of feel to the issue, even though the stories recapped here only began in 2008.

Overall, this was a fun recap and great for anyone interested in trying Deadpool or just looking for some cheesy humor. [Cheese…I like cheese.]

On a final note, what ever happened to Hit-Monkey? As the assistant editor of this website, I’m demanding that Marvel bring back Hit-Monkey in some way, shape or form in the next year. He doesn’t have to be in his own series. I know the attempt at giving him one kind of flopped. Or something.

Just bring him back. Now!

[Yeah! What he said!]

STORY: 7/10 (Because, you know…It’s a recap. Nothing new to see here.)
ART: 8/10